This is VERY helpful if you're trying to use svn+ssh with an alternate port number and you get the vague message about the network connection closing unexpectedly:
Before you go there, however, if you have shell access on the remote host from which you're trying to check the project out, be sure to test locally:
svn list svn+ssh://username@localhost/path/to/project/repository
If you don't have a port number specified in ~/.ssh/config, you should first try:
svn list svn+ssh://username@localhost:1234/path/to/project/repository ('1234' in place of your port number)
If that doesn't work, open up ~/.ssh/config (you may need to create it) and enter this:
Host yourhost.com
User username
Port 1234
In the case of testing on localhost, I used this config file:
Host localhost
User myUsername
Port 1234
Literally use the host, "localhost."
Once I knew that worked, I could try remotely, at which point I got the seemingly meaningless error. So, I then created the config file on my local machine.
Good luck!
